Archives for February 2014

There are dozens of aspects at play that a business owner must consider when setting up offices for their employees. Chief among these is the color that you choose for the office. Although the default color for most offices seems to be “white,” or the always-exciting “slightly off white,” these may not be the best colors to inspire productivity and creativity in your employees. Below, we’ve listed a few common office colors, along with the effect that you’ll find they have on most employees.

In Zeeland, Michigan, way back in the year 1905, a company called the Star Furniture Company set out to create a line of high quality furniture; specifically, office furniture that featured an old-fashioned historic style. When visionary Dirk Jan De Pree joined the company as a clerk just four years later, no one had a clue that he would quickly rise through the ranks to become the company’s president in a short ten year span.

The strength of anything lies in the design. This is true for basically everything on Earth, including the design of your office space. The more that you know about how the design of a room impacts the people that work inside of it, the happier that your employees will be. By utilizing the philosophies behind the Chinese art of Feng Shui, you’ll soon find that it’s possible to shift the energy of the room into a positive light.

Differences in industry can be an important factor to consider when ordering furniture and deciding which office design will work for you and your employees. It can be easy for business owners and managers to look at office designs as some extraneous and nebulous aspect of work that has a negligible impact on workers, but it’s much harder to argue with the results.

Your duty as a business owner includes ensuring that you’ve taken every possible step toward maximum productivity. Part of this concept is the overall design of your office. It’s possible for a workplace environment to feel overly sterile and uninviting if no attention has been paid to the layout of the furniture or the room itself. Once you’ve struck a good balance that promotes innovation and creativity, your employees are more likely to feel more comfortable, decreasing their overall stress and boosting their productivity.

Famously creative businesses like Pixar, Google, Apple and Disney have become well known for promoting a team-building environment. They accomplish this not just by reorganizing their infrastructure to make it more team friendly, but also through the layout of their office in general.

A well-oiled office is a combination of many things, including the people, the tools used and the culture. These days, when many of us spend more time at work than we do at home, maintaining a productive and positive office environment is more important than ever. However, as is the case with every office, there are always a few bad apples and few things that can be improved upon. See if your office is an offender, with our top 10 worst office offenses!

For most of the country, winter is still very much among us. From snow storms on the east coast to record breaking chills down south, it’s safe to say it’s been a cold couple of months. While your building may be temperature controlled, we’ve come up with 5 additional ways to help you fend off the chills and keep you cozy in your cubicle.

When you walk into your office, what do you see? Your desk, your chair, your lamp, your keyboard … You may have all the necessities it takes for a solid workspace, but how satisfied are you with it? Below we’ve compiled a quick list of questions to help you determine the answer.

In 1967, designer Robert Propst for Herman Miller had a new vision for the office space. Calling it the Action Office II, the partially enclosed environment offered greater privacy and productivity for the modern office worker. These days, we call this revolutionary furniture piece … The Cubicle.

Over the last few years, more and more companies are turning towards an innovative concept for their office spaces – Biophilic Design.

To understand Biophilic Design, we must first understand Biophilia. Biophilia refers to the theory that by nature, humans have an instinctual bond with other living things like plants and animals. Biophilic Design seeks to bridge that relationship in environments like offices.

The New Year has arrived and so have the latest trends in office design. For 2014, they are bold colors and streamlined, functional spaces. Check out our top 5 office trends for 2014:

1. Bright Colors: This year the experts at Pantone named Radiant Orchid the color of the year. Confident, bold and warm, the light purple and fuchsia fusion will add a pop of life to any room you add it to.